Schubert BMW squad to join Blancpain

The German Schubert BMW squad will bolster the Blancpain Sprint Series grid for the remainder of the season.

Schubert Motorsport, one of BMW's factory representatives in last weekend's Nurburgring 24 Hours, will field a solo Z4 in the BSS, starting at round three of the championship at Zandvoort on July 5-6.

The car will be driven by Austrian Thomas Jager and Dominik Baumann, who races for Schubert in the ADAC GT Masters series and finished sixth with the team in the 24 Hours at the Nurburgring. Jager is making the move into GT racing after finishing sixth in last year's German Formula 3 Cup.

The 19-year-old said: "Last year I realized that to get to the top of formula racing you need a lot of money. That is why I decided to change paths, and I'm delighted that it has worked out with Schubert."

AF CORSE SET TO RETURN; 20 CARS FOR ZANDVOORT

The AF Corse Ferrari team is expected to return to the BSS for selected races with a programme starting at the Slovakia Ring round in August, and series boss Stephane Ratel has promised a growth in entries over the second half of the season.

The British Fortec Mercedes team is aiming to return to full strength with a two-car squad at Zandvoort and is expected to finalize its plans tomorrow (Friday).

Farnbacher Racing, which was unable to make its BSS debut at the Brands Hatch round in May after an accident in practice, will not be present with its Porsche 911 GT3-R

The Reiter-run Blancpain Racing Lamborghini Gallardo FLII, which was raced by Peter Kox and Marc Hayek at the Nogaro series opener, will also be absent.

Ratel stated that both the Farnbacher Porsche and the Reiter/Blancpain car will return for the Slovakia Ring.

The Zandvoort fixture was never part of Alex Zanardi's program with the ROAL BMW team because of a clashing commitment with his hand-cycling racing program. That means there should be 20 entries again for Zandvoort.